This invention relates to devices and methods for attaching soft tissue to bone and for repairing torn soft tissue.
One area in the body where soft tissue is surgically reattached to bone is the attachment of a rotator cuff tendon to the humerus. The rotator cuff tendons have areas of low blood supply. With an increased blood supply, a tissue, such as a tendon, can repair and maintain itself better and faster. Thus, areas of poor blood supply in the rotator cuff make these tendons difficult and slow to heal following an injury, such as a tear to the supraspinatus muscle or the subscapularis muscle. In such a tear, part of the tendon is pulled away from the bone. Because of the poor blood supply, rather than attempting to allow an injured rotator cuff to heal on its own, a physician will often recommend that the tendon be surgically repaired to better fix the position of the cuff to the bone to prevent further damage and improve the environment for healing. For example, the physician may attempt to fix the tendon to the bone using a suture anchor. One example of a suture anchor is disclosed in Hayhurst, U.S. Pat. No. 4,741,330, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Other areas in the body also have tissue that can be surgically reattached to bone when torn from the bone or can be surgically repaired when a tear forms in the tissue. These areas include, for example, the biceps tendon, the lateral collateral ligament in the knee, the medial collateral ligament in the knee, the meniscus in the knee, the popliteal ligament in the leg, and the labrum tendon in the knee.